1. Field
The disclosure is related to a method of and device for providing channel health of a channel in a wavelength divisional multiplex system.
2. Related Art
The background information provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
As network carriers look to provide greater amounts of capacity, they must find ways to provide greater bandwidth in their existing systems. Wavelength Division Multiplexing multiplexes different wavelengths of light onto a single fiber to transmit data in defined channels. To get increasing amounts of data through the fiber, data rates are increasing from 10 G to 40 G to 100 G or higher and channel spacing is compressing from 200 GHz to 100 GHz to 50 GHz and lower.
This ever increasing data greatly increases the burden on the integrity of the distribution system, which includes the fiber and the components. To determine if a network is able to support the data transmission without corruption, carriers must be able to test their system and determine quickly if the performance is sufficient to reliably transmit data.
There are many different characteristics which define the performance of a given network. Carriers must have skilled test personnel capable of not only performing the measurements but also analyzing the different characteristics and determine if the network is capable of reliably transmitting data.
This drives up cost of test by (1) requiring higher level of skilled labor to be dispatched to determine network problems and (2) requiring those technicians to spend time reviewing and analyzing the signal characteristics in detail to determine if they meet the required specifications (center frequency, Optical Signal to Noise Ratio, channel power, channel crosstalk [also known as adjacent channel power], etc.)
, etc).
Existing solutions allow a user to take measurements on WDM systems and provides the signal level and characteristics across the complete spectrum. Existing solutions can provide measurement of given characteristics on that signal but do not provide the user a quick and simple understanding of whether an issue exists, which may impact overall reliability.
Using existing solutions, a user would be required to carry out calculations on their own to determine if the channel will operate without potential problems. Typically, the user would review a Channel Power and a Center Frequency/Center Wavelength/Channel Number independently and pass or fail a network based on one or the other independently. Identifying a characteristic independently may indicate a good channel as bad or a bad channel as good.